Thursday, 25 February 2010

Pressed Beef

Recently I've become a fan of French cook and food writer Sonia Ezgulian. Her little book 'Petits Ricochets de Cuisine' focuses on ideas for getting the most out of a dish or set of ingredients, by getting more than one meal from every cooking session. She deliberately cooks with leftovers in mind.

This pressed beef was created with the leftovers from a daube.

Sonia suggests preparing boeuf bourguignon, being particularly generous with the red wine and stock. Then, with the leftovers, you can make un pressé de boeuf, persillade aux anchois.

Shred the cooked meat, then mix with a ladleful of cooking liquor. Don't strain out the pieces of mushrooms and carrot because they give flavour and colour to the terrine. Heat up some fortified wine like muscat-de-rivesaltes or banyuls and dissolve some softened gelatine in it. Add it to the meat mixture.

Make a hash of parsley, garlic and anchovies in olive oil. Line a terrine with clingfilm and put in half the beef mixture, followed by the persillade, topped off with the rest of the beef. Press it lightly and put in the refrigerator for a few hours to set.

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About Us

Susan was born in Victoria, but moved to Queensland when she was 11. Simon was born in London, but moved to Canberra when he was 7, and to Queensland when he was 28. In 1997 they moved to London. Susan worked for a large heritage and nature conservation trust and Simon taught music technology at tertiary level.

Now we live in Preuilly-sur-Claise, a small town with a population of less than 1000 people in the south of the Loire Valley. We write about the restoration of our house, the history of our local area, nature, cooking and anything else that strikes us as interesting. When we are not blogging we run Loire Valley Time Travel, doing individually tailored tours of the Touraine for anglophone visitors in our classic Citroëns, Célestine and Claudette.

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